The stakes are high: the election offers Abe a chance to repair his damaged political reputation while shaking up Japanese politics and breathing life into perennial efforts to revise Japan’s post-WWII “pacifist” constitution to allow the country to go to war. So far, the campaign has seen the disintegration of one political party, the birth of two new ones, and protests from a vocal movement accusing the prime minister of representing a national crisis.

Abe is hoping to capitalize on rebounding voter support in the fallout from North Korea’s ongoing nuclear and missile tests. In fact, when the Japanese Diet convened for its three-month summer recess in July, the prime minister’s popularity had cratered. A series of scandals had led to speculations that Abe was planning to step down, with a potential successor waiting in the wings.

But on July 4, North Korea started regularly testing true intercontinental ballistic missiles thought to be capable of striking the continental United States. Some tests landed near Japan, while by the end of the summer residents in northern Japan were receiving text messages about North Korean missiles passing overhead.

However, compared to the DPJ or even Abe’s LDP, the Party of Hope ran on a plank of populist and even ultra-conservative policies. Notably, like the LDP, the Party of Hope promised to revise Japan’s “peace” constitution in order to allow the country to go to war, and party leader Koike promised to purge any DPJ lawmaker that opposed constitutional revisionism.

As a result of Koike’s hard-right approach, yet another new party was launched during the election campaign, this one dedicated to preserving Japan’s “peace” constitution.

Another new party wants to save Japan’s post-war ‘peace constitution’

Both Shinzo Abe’s LDP and Koike Yuriko’s Party of Hope have promised to revise Japan’s constitution to make it easier for Japan to go to war. In response, Edano Yukio formed the Constitutional Democratic Party (立憲民主党, Rikken Minshuto). Yukio is a former high-ranking opposition DPJ member who served as chief cabinet secretary–the de facto deputy prime minister–during the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

By mid-October, with less than a week to before the end of the election campaign, Edano’s Constitutional Democratic Party had become the most popular opposition party by a percentage point, although many voters still said they had not decided who they would vote for:

Tweet: I’ve uploaded this poster on Twitter #You’re_the_National_Crisis #The_Coming_National_Crisis. To amplify this meme: use code #12424741 at 7-11 printers to print out this poster.

The hashtag reflects the sense of national crisis Abe has fostered since North Korea began its missile and nuclear tests over the summer, and the crisis that will occur should Abe be reelected to pursue revising the constitution to allow Japan to go to war.

Abe headed for a win, even if he loses the chance to revise the constitution

Besides plans to revise Japan’s constitution, Abe and the LDP have also spooked the electorate by planning to double Japan’s consumption tax (VAT) to 10% in order to pay for social programs such as elder care and daycare in order to encourage women to enter the workforce.